


What May Come

by DualWieldingCousland (DualWieldingMama)



Series: Starting Over [21]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Origins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 12:16:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6803800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DualWieldingMama/pseuds/DualWieldingCousland
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alistair spends the day with two small members of the Theirin family.</p>
            </blockquote>





	What May Come

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for a challenge/contest in the Caboodling group on Facebook for Father's Day.

Alistair poked his head into the dining room.  “Coming to bed?”  They’d been sharing a bed for a few months, now, and he’d honestly never slept better or been happier.  Something about just being with her made everything … right. 

Regan looked over her shoulder and smiled.  She would never have imagined how much she enjoyed sharing her space with another person.  “I’ve got to finish this spreadsheet, then I’ll be in,” she replied.  “Shouldn’t be more than fifteen minutes.”  She watched as he pursed his lips in that adorable pout of his and bit back a laugh.  “No pouting.  This is _work_ ; I’ll be there soon.  I _promise_.” 

He laughed and shook his head, heading back down the hallway to the bedroom.  He poked his head into what had been intended as _his_ room and found Jasper curled up in the center of the bed, again.  “I wonder … did you somehow plan all this?”  The mabari barely raised his head in response, giving Alistair a soft woof as his only indication.  “I’ll … take that as a yes.”  He tugged the door mostly closed and finished his journey to the bed.  He flopped onto the soft mattress and was asleep within minutes.

                                    ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~

Alistair rubbed his eyes and rolled out of bed.  He vaguely remembered Regan’s alarm going off and her climbing out of bed while the sun was still just thinking about making its way above the horizon.  Maker, he hated their wonky schedules.  But at least it was only once in a blue moon that she had to make a business trip _this_ early.  She would be back later that evening.  He stumbled his way toward the kitchen, dodging the random toys in the hallway with practiced ease.  He poked his head into the second bedroom and found it curiously empty.   “Where …?”

“Daddy!”  One voice echoed down the hall.

“Daddy, you’re awake!”  A second, similar-sounding voice piggybacked on the first, excitement more evident than in the other.  Two sets of feet thundered through the apartment in his direction.

“Is it time to go to the zoo now, daddy?”   The first voice piped up again, suddenly desperate to out-excite the second voice.

“Mama said you’d make us pancakes for breakfast!”  The second voice grew louder, determined to be heard over the first. 

Alistair dropped to his knees and tried to prepare himself for the impact he knew was coming as a pair of identical ginger-haired boys barreled into him.  His grunt of surprise melted into laugher as he fell back, ass landing on the floor and small hands tickling his sides.  Maker, he _loved_ their summer-morning greetings.  During the school year, there was so little time for such frivolity.  “How long have you two been up?”  He looked from one boy to the other, grateful that they never seemed to try and trade places, like so many horror stories he’d heard from parents of twins.

“Mama made us _promise_ not to wake you up.”

“That’s not what daddy asked, _Bryce_.”  The boy wearing a warden-blue t-shirt stuck his tongue out at his brother.  “We heard Mama coming back from walkin’ Jasper.  She said we was to let you sleep ‘cause you worked _late_.”

“I just _said_ that, Duncan!”  Bryce’s bottom lip quivered for half a second before he turned to his father.  “Mama didn’t have time t’make breakfast.  Unca Fergus called and said she was late!”

Alistair groaned and tried to move both boys off him as gently as possible in order to actually get up.  “Ooooh, your mother _hates_ being late.  Either your Uncle was pulling her leg, or he changed the time of the meeting.  Either way, I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.”  He struggled to his feet as soon as he was child free and urged them toward the kitchen.  “Why don’t we see about making those pancakes?  And _then_ we can go to the zoo.”

                                **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **

“Lookit, Daddy!  What _is_ that?”  Bryce leaned as far over the railing as he could to point at the large four-legged creature in the pen. 

Alistair glanced over at the placard giving the name of the creature and frowned.  He didn’t have the slightest clue how to pronounce the full, scientific name; there were far too many consonants and not nearly enough vowels.  It looked enough like some of the creatures he remembered the zoo having years ago, so he just kind of went with it.  “I _think_ this is a type of bronto, pup.  They use these out in the Frostbacks and Orzammar to haul cheese to Redcliff, Highever, and Denerim.  They make this special cheese in the Deep Roads district that is to _die_ for.”  He momentarily forgot that he was talking to two five-year-olds, at least one of whom shared his love of cheeses to a dangerous degree.

“Daddy, can we get some of that cheese?”  Bryce’s already big green eyes seemed to double in size as he beamed up at his father, pleading.  “Please oh please oh please?”  Even Duncan was getting in on the begging, joining his brother on the “Please Please Please-es” while tugging on Alistair’s hand. 

He was yanked off balance by two pairs of hands tugging, just barely catching himself on the rail before hitting the ground.  He grinned at the excited expressions looking back at him and couldn’t help himself.  “It is _very_ hard to find this particular cheese,” he warned with total seriousness.  “And it’s _really_ expensive.  I suggest asking your Uncle Cailan … a _lot_ … over and over again, until he caves.”  He glanced over his shoulder, making sure no one was listening.  “Just don’t ask Aunt Anora; she doesn’t like cheese.”  Maker help him; they looked _so_ much like their mother when they did that big ‘puppy-dog’ thing with their eyes.  She _had_ to have taught them that, right?

“Can we ask Mama?”  Duncan bounced on the balls of his feet.  “Mama can find it.  Mama can find _anything_.” 

Alistair felt his cheeks go warm.  “No … let’s not mention this to mom.  She … she doesn’t take cheese as seriously as we do.”  Where in the Maker’s name was he going to get a cheese that looked, and tasted, like it came from the Deep Roads district of Orzammar?  What kind of cheese would they have out there, anyway?  “Why don’t we go see some more animals?  There’s still a lot of zoo to see, and there’s the train … and the carousel … and monkeys!”  He looked over at the nearest map.  “ _And_ … the new ‘Animals of the Inquisition’ exhibit - horses, harts, nugalopes and drakolisks!”

“What’s a … a nug’lope?”

“Are drake … drake-o-licks like _dragons_?”

“Are there any gryphons?  I wanna ride a gryphon!”

He looked at the map again.  “Doesn’t look like they have gryphon-rides, but I bet the horses or harts might.”  Alistair tried to mentally prepare himself for the inevitable tantrum that came with disappointment.  He tried to remember all the ways the parenting books suggested to stop them, and all the ways his brother-in-law had told him when the books’ ways didn’t work. 

“I’m gonna ride a drake-o-lick,” Duncan exclaimed proudly. 

“I wanna ride the … the ….”  Bryce scrunched his face up at his father and tried to remember what the other really strangely named creature was.  “the _nug’lope_ with _you_ , daddy!”

“We’ll see what they have when we get there, kids.  You may have to settle for something a little less … exotic.”  Alistair nudged the two boys along the path, wondering just what sort of rides the zoo might actually have.  Oren used to love the horse-rides, but it had been years since he and Regan had taken her nephew to the zoo for Fergus; he was near old enough to drive himself now.  Maker only knew what had changed since then.  “But no matter what, you’ll get to brag to mom that you got to ride _something_ while she was stuck in boring meetings all day.  And I’ll take pictures and send them to mom so she knows just how much fun you’re having.”

                                **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **

“OK, boys; you’ve had your baths, brushed your teeth, and gotten into your PJs.”  Alistair ran through the list of nightly responsibilities, checking them off with a large flourish.  He didn’t object to the night-time checklist Regan had left him; it was helpful since normally she took care of the bedtime rituals while he got mornings.  But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be silly.  And, of course, the boys were overjoyed to have daddy putting them to bed.  “What’s next?”

“Story, Daddy!”  Duncan near leapt out of bed to race to the bookshelf and pull out a thick book of stories.  “Bryce got _his_ choice of story last night.  It’s my turn to pick!”

‘Nuh uh, Duncan!”  Bryce scrambled out of his just-tucked-in bed to pull a different book off the shelf.  “Mama read _Duncan’s_ story last night.  It’s _my_ turn!”  His bottom lip quivered.  Big eyes got bigger and sadder as he held out his book right next to his brother’s. 

Alistair sighed softly and looked at the boys’ beds.  Neither was really big enough for him to feel comfortable sitting on for any length of time.  “Come on, guys.  Follow me; I’ll just read _both_ stories.”  He led them across the hall to the room he shared with their mother and tossed them gently onto the large bed.  “Let’s get comfortable.”  He climbed between them and smiled as they snuggled up, one under each arm.  He started with Bryce’s book, keeping his voice soft.  The only time he paused was when Jasper decided to climb into bed as well.  He did his best to change voices as the characters changed, adding sound effects here and there when the situation called for it.  When that book was done, he moved on to Duncan’s, giving it the same treatment.

                                **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **           **

Regan leaned against the door-frame and just smiled.  She hadn’t planned on taking so long to get home, but the traffic on the highway had been insane.  She had _wanted_ to at least be able to kiss the boys goodnight before they fell asleep, and spend a little time with Alistair.  Unfortunately, things hadn’t worked out that way.  Instead, she found her husband on the bed with two five-year-olds curled up against him, an arm around each one and a book open in his lap.  All three were softly snoring.  Alistair had just a hint of drool working its way along his chin.  Jasper lifted his head and shifted just enough for her to have space on the bed as well before falling back into a restful sleep.

                                ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~     ~~~~~~~~~~

He felt something nudge him, then practically roll him face-first into his pillow.  Alistair’s eyes flew open in time to see Regan slip under the covers to join him.  He didn’t bother fighting the smile that crossed his face when her arm slid over his hip to tug him back to her.  He thought about letting her think he was still asleep, but that dream – it had seemed so _real_.  What would _she_ think?  Would she be bothered by the fact that he’d dreamed of having children with her?  His mouth started moving before he could stop himself.  “I just had the … an amazing dream.”

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place not long after Alistair starts sharing a bed with Regan. Or, well, the first part and the very end part, anyway. Yes; I did the silly dream sequence, but it was fun.


End file.
